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So the problem with media conglomerates (including big studios) is they want predictable returns. More specifically, they want a formula. Let me introduce you t
by jmyeet 4y ago
So the problem with media conglomerates (including big studios) is they want predictable returns. More specifically, they want a formula. Let me introduce you to Save the Cat [1]. This book has become so influential that you can read this book and then watch pretty much any movie and you'll be able to tick off everything in the movie to this structure.
It's why studios love sequels and franchises. They have a built-in audience ie predictable returns.
The biggest innovation we've had in this industry is the advent of highly serialized TV shows, made possibly in large part due to (at first) DVRs and then streaming. 30 years ago it just wasn't possible or practical to do somethin glike this when people had to tune in at a set time. The audience drop off would've been too severe.
For me this has been the true Golden Age of TV. But movies? It's all superhero films now and dull, dull, dull for the most part.
So the lesson Netflix is learning here is you can't just scale up a content business by throwing money at it. Studios would love if it this were true. Netflix has thrown many billions at this problem and not spent it wisely. You can't just write a check for $10 billion and become HBO.
Movies in particularly just don't make economic sense without theater releases. We've seen this durin gthe pandemic with movies that have skipped theaters out of necessity. It just doesn't work.
I agree Netflix needed to create original content given the inevitable "me too" streaming platforms from all the studios would otherwise rob Netflix of their catalog. But they may have just saddled themselves with so much debt that they're forced into ever-increasing sub prices because of decreasing subscriber numbers, which just accelerates the need for more price hikes and so on.
Ironically this is exactly what is killing cable TV.
[1]:https://www.amazon.com/Save-Last-Book-Screenwriting-Youll/dp/1932907009 https://www.amazon.com/Save-Last-Book-Screenwriting-Youll/dp...
- pvarangot 4y agoI would add that "a formula" doesn't mean it's bad. I regularly drank beer since like when I was 14 until when I was like 35 or something? I do it way less now but still sometimes drink beer. My favorite style changes. Sometime I just drink a new one because like dopamine hits and I get excited about the potential novelty and discovery. But it's beer, and I think there's nothing wrong with it. From bud light to like whatever quadruppel or super IPA monstrosity someone in the Bay Area decided to brew and that may work as an antiseptic, I like them all. There's a formula and I like it, and I also like Marvel movies. Maybe I'm a basic bastard and I'm making a cardinal sin by spending my money on non innovative things and I should be only watching surreal pieces shot in a single take where at least one actor committed suicide or got addicted to opioids while shooting the movie. Don't get me wrong, those are great too and specially the followup documentaries. I also can then participate in high stakes intelectual debates. But that's a formula too. And maybe I should drink sours but fuck that. But yeah I think your analysis is great but I also think it's important to say that milking successful formulas is not wrong or morally reprehensible. If you scam people or whatever while doing yeah that's bad, but letting the chicken lay the golden eggs and not changing anything about it is pretty much ok in my hierarchy of sins.
- orzig 4y agoI can't match the near-unhinged brilliance of the above comment, but I'll add that many meditation traditions encourage serenity by inspecting the details of the ordinary instead of a constant grasping for new stimulation.
- pvarangot 4y agoIt's also of note that no meditation tradition drinks sours.
- Ericson2314 4y agoThere's a lot of monastic traditions of fermentated foods; I would not be so sure.
- m3047 4y agoI brew. I've known a lot of weird fanatics. A friend who also brews and is serious enough to do meditation retreats has gotten into a thing where he's making beer harvested with wild yeast in turn harvested from ginger root... some tradition somewhere he says.
- tjr225 4y agoEquating whatever random super hero drivel is being shoved down your throat to meditation is quite the stretch.
- scarface74 4y agoThe MCU by itself has made over $25 billion world wide and that’s not counting the Fox/Marvel series that Disney now owns. They must be doing something right. And that’s just in theaters. That’s not counting money made via syndication, licensing, home video, etc
- dougabug 4y agoSure, but they have tapped into a pre-existing fan base and many decades of storylines, themes, and characters. Disney has also done this successfully with the Star Wars franchise, and the Mouse House will likely continue to make most of its profits in the future from long standing cultural properties.
- smcnally 4y agoNetflix has worked to infer predictable returns by using ratings and habits from its 222MM subscribers. They model potential market size against production and marketing costs, assess risk, and make decisions informed by all of it. Lots that can go right and wrong, but it’s a solid approach.
- jakear 4y agoDays of our Lives? Highly serialized, been running since 1965.
- makeitdouble 4y agoI kinda wonder how long movies will continue make economic sense, at all. What we call movies are 1h30 or more of continuous contents, and in this day and age this becomes an increasingly long time to be stuck in one place doing one thing. If it’s a full hobby, like pottery or bordering why not, but for “casual” people I feel the proposition is less and less attractive.
- ummonk 4y agoThis view seems to be contradicted by the extent to which people binge-watch shows, which involves way more than 90 minutes of continuous contents.
- makeitdouble 4y agoBinging happens on your terms, you can stop and resume on smaller units of time (e.g. 1h for western tv shows, 20 min for anime). Worse case if you’re disrupted is you’d restart the eps you were on at a later and you’d lose less than an hour of watch time. Current movies go up to 3h… I see as the same paradox as people watching Tiktok shorts for hours. Yes, in aggregate it could be more than several movies stuck together, but it’s order of magnitude less binding and requires less commitment.
- asimilator 4y ago> you can stop and resume on smaller units of time You can pause a movie? I don’t always watch a movie in one go.
- rubslopes 4y agoI've been starting and early stopping many 10-episodes series because of how much they drag (looking at you, Servant, and Disney series). Maybe I became more impatient lately, idk. My new hobby is watching movies as they were 4-episodes series. It's great, much more to the point.
- makeitdouble 4y ago
- tomrod 4y agoAll we've done is recreate cable TV on a new medium, with broader access of service providers. Streaming services are equivalent to MVNOs on cellular networks.